Is PHAT a word?

There are moments in my life, where I don’t know whether to be completely mortified or amused.

A couple of weeks ago, we were in Olive Branch visiting family. As we were sitting around at Jay’s parent’s house catching up, Hayley mentions that they have been studying homonyms in her 1st grade class. Every day they get opportunities to offer up new ones to write on the board. The goal is to come up with 100 homonyms. So we start naming some and Hayley proceeds to write them down, so she can contribute in class on Monday. I think we thought of about 50, there were just so many.

After a little while, Hayley looks up and says, “By the way, Daddy, Mrs. Thomas said that Phat, spelled P-H-A-T is NOT a word.” I look over at Jay as he is trying to avert my glaring eyes. Then I ask Hayley what she is talking about. She mentions that Jay (my darling husband) gave her some examples the other day to take to class with her. One of them was FAT and PHAT. I can not imagine what Mrs. Thomas was thinking as Hayley raised her hand to say that one. Maybe she won’t think that we are complete riffraff!

By the way, according to Webster's online dictionary, Phat is a word which can mean "cool" or "neat."